Mega annoyed with passport office!!!

[Steelojames]

So 10th of July I apply (in person at London passport office) for my passport renewal and my son's first passport.
Flying middle August so pay for fast track which is a week guaranteed.
My passport arrives 7 days later, but my sons doesn't.
I'm then contacted by a family member who tells me my dad (who I have NOTHING to do with) has contacted them saying someone has contacted him informing him that my passport has been sent to them in error and can he collect it.
(He was listed at the back in emergency section).
I AM FURIOUS!

So the passport office have sent my old passport to a random address & my dad who I don't speak to (history of domestic violence) now has access to my details.
I try to get my sons passport delivered only to be told by the courier that there has been a mix up with my address.

I complain to passport office, & am told someone will investigate and will get a call in "24 hrs."
NO call ever happens, despite 6 days of frequent calling, I put an official complaint in.

Meanwhile my sons passport finally arrives a week after guaranteed and they have spelt his name wrong. ARGHHHHHH!

I head back to passport office to have changed and am told will be sent back tues at the latest.

As of today, still don't have my sons passport, my old passport is god knows where, & I have put a complaint in which is now at stage two & takes 10 days for them to investigate!
Customer service is terrible, not helpful, no one calls you back or knows what to do! It's a joke!

Sorry to rant, but I'm soooo angry. It's just not on is it???

Almost everything sounds like a nightmare apart from the emergency details.... sorry, but that was your gaffe. Sorry, it sounds awful

Why did you put your dads address down if you have no contact with him?
I always thought you surrendered the 'old' passport to get the new one so are you sure thats what it is at your dads?

No they send the old one back.

It was a really old passport and I didn't even remember my dad was listed in the back... I'd had it since a teenager and my mum was listed too but has changed her number since.
Either way, the fact he had got involved has made me really angry. The passport office shouldn't have sent it to a random address...they can't locate it and the only way I can get it back it seems is if I go through my dad which I shouldn't have to do.

I stand corrected - everyday is a school day

I didn't put him down, he was in the back of old one. I didn't even kno they sent old ones back.
The passport office have messed up big time!!
And where is my son's??? They don't know either...they have my address so why are the sending passports to different addresses??
It is sooo dangerous to do...say it got into the wrong hands?
It's stressing me out.

Dear me, that is awful.

Fwiw I wouldn't have checked the contact details in the old one either.

There is massive problems with passports at the moment- I had a huge struggle in May and my kids arrived 2 days before we flew. To get things moving I contacted my MP who was brilliant, I suggest you do the same. I would have got the kids passports if it wasn't for them.

*would not

Why would they send it to an address at the back of an old passport when they have my current address on file and sent my new passports there?
It is def their fault! You can't be sending passports to random addresses.

I bet it got separated from your application so they had no address for it and rather than admitting the problem decided to send it to the emergency address and hope it reached you.

If that'sthe situation then your dad probably has no information other than that which was in your teenage passport.

As for your son's passport, the application is probably pootling through.

Yep my friends dd was spose to be in spain with her granparents this week but she missed it as passport wasnt done they had forms since april!

What's this nonsense suggesting it's not really much of a mistake to send the old passport back to an emergency contact?? It's a total error - the document goes back to the applicant, nobody else. Not even if they're listed for emergency contact.

Steelojames I'd be fuming, too.

but to be honestly some people are waiting up to 3 months for a new passport so 3 weeks later isn't to bad tbh

The people who are waiting upto 3 months haven't paid through the nose for a fast track, guaranteed 8 day turnaround, though!

The people who are waiting 3 months have paid the standard fee.

You should have received your sons passport 21 days ago !!

Contact your MP, asap, Steelojames.

As for the old passport being sent to your dad's address, I don't see that's your fault, either.

Just to put it into context, I applied for two adult passports, 1 of which was a first adult passport (17 year old DD), and three children's passport (one was a first passport).

The appointment at Liverpool was last Thursday, and we'd received them all by Tuesday of this week. The marriage and birth certificates arrived this morning.

We didn't even pay for ours till Monday of this week due to a mix up on my part of thinking I could pay using a mandate form, rather than actually having the card to pass onto the cashier.

The cashier didn't have the facilities to do the payment unless he had the card, but he arranged for the other team to call me, as they had the facilities to receive payment over the phone. They called us too! I didn't have to chase after them to get them to do it. Unbelievably efficient service.

If your DS's passport has been processed, and sent out somewhere, someone, somewhere has signed for it. Is there any chance that the postman has tried to deliver it, but was unable to cause you were out (perhaps) so it's ended up at the Post Office Depot?

This happened to me once, (not a passport) and the note that the postman left had got wedged under the doormat so I couldn't see it.

I'd demand to speak to a manager at the Passport Office and demand to know if it has been sent out. If it has, it might be worth trying to contact the Post Office, I wouldn't trust the Passport Office to trace it, given their track record.

I've called them EVERY day since I found out my old passport has sent else where.
Each time I'm told someone will call back and no one ever has except once!

I've demanded to speak to a manager but never have been put through. My sons passport came a week late and I sent it back (due to name error) and since then....NOTHING.
I have made complaints but think I will have to get a MP involved because it is not on.
There are 3 separate issues now tho:

1. my old passport gone missing
2. My sons name error and now not getting that back
3. POOR customer service

I just don't know how they think this is acceptable on a fast track order.

If you can get your MP's attention because they screwed up your son's passport passport AND plainly dropped your old passport on the floor then that's good. Might also be worth contacting the PCS union who are complaining about staffing levels because there are temporary staff being brought in to cover the shortfall and competency is at stake.

Have you considered the Information Commission.. ? the fact that they have given your personal address to someone who they had no right to send them to, is I believe an offence ? At the very least it is a serious weakness. It shows they were not taking proper care of the data .

Don't stress!
My sons passport has been located!
They called to say they have def sent it and I refused to accept that as knew it hadn't been.
Spoke to a manager who said they'd just double check in collections and then they said it was there and hadn't been sent at all!!!
Cannot believe the incompetence!!
Going to collect it tomorrow in person as do not trust they will send!
Adding this all on to my complaints!!
Thanks for your advice and suggestions.

Oh that's a relief!

You'll be reinbursed, I assume. They can't possibly hang on to the fast track fee after all of this!

Is it because you can't fasttrack a first passport?

You can fast track a child's first passport, just not an adult's first passport.